Per 2
October 7th, 2013
The Deconstruction of Act 1's “Demonic” Themes
The play The Crucible written by Arthur Miller is an allegory for the Red Scare and Salem Witch Trials. Its based in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. In Act 1 the play introduce many of the essential characters of the play. It introduces the fact that everyone in the town is carrying their own demons inside and their willing to bail them on anyone to escape judgment. In the play there are two types of demonic forces at work, literal demonic forces, like witchcraft, possession, death during child birth, people being turned into witches, and dancing in the forest late at night. As well as figurative demonic forces, examples of that would be reputation, intolerance, deceit, lies, and rumors. One prominent demonic for in Salem are all the lies and deception being told and spread. To be specific, the lies told by Abigail and Tituba towards the end are what start the true main conflict in the story. They themselves were accused of being witches and were pressed into a corner. Once they were backed into a corner they had no way to get out, so they started accusing people of witchcraft to save themselves. Unfortunately both Reverends Hale and Parris believe them and people begin being arrested. “I saw Goody Sibber with the Devil!” (Abigail, 45). Concern over ones own reputation was also a demonic force in play in Salem. Peoples concern for how others will think of them, that people are thinking of them differently, or their concern for having their name stay in just a perfect place because they have everything riding on it is a precarious place to be. If anything bad were to happen you might not able to bear showing your face around even if others didn’t know, because your afraid they would know and judge you based on it, which is why it you do everything in your powers to keep you reputation under control. One of the main concerns and examples of reputation in the story